Getting Published

We’re home after a quick wonderful visit to Purdue University in Indiana, where the weather was freezing (and I mean freezing) but the reception couldn’t have been warmer. R. gave a talk at the celebration for Dr. Arvind Raman becoming the Robert V. Adams Professor of Electrical Engineering. All of Arvind’s family was there,…

Donal Ryan, a civil servant from Limerick, Ireland, wrote two novels. He sent them to agents and publishers and got back 47 rejections over three years. Finally an intern at Lilliput Press in Dublin fished “The Thing About December” out of the slush pile. Around the same time, an editor at Doubleday Ireland took interest…

Please come to Diesel Books in Brentwood next Tuesday (June 18th) if you’re in LA. We’re having a party for KICKING IN THE WALL and some of my fabulous students who are in the book will be reading, and I’ll talk about how to kickstart your writing with 5 minute exercises. Oh, and did…

This photo and the one below were taken by Rob Daly at our Kicking In the Wall workshop/lunch/celebration at Tom Hartman’s studio in Santa Monica on Saturday. A few of the writers featured in the book were missing, but at some point in the next few months you can catch them all. Below is the email blast…

I do understand that this gets tedious – this buy my book, come see me, stuff. But KICKING IN THE WALL is now available – and I’m available, well just about everywhere. This weekend I’m talkiing to the Californa Writers Club in Woodland Hills, then on May 16 at Flintridge Books in La Canada at…

Remember how I’m always saying don’t get your hopes up that the world will change when you get published? Well, I just got a very funny email from my student Jeri Okamoto Floyd on this subject. Some of her wonderful work is featured in Kicking in the Wall (along with fifteen other students) – and her copy…

I just got the first review of Kicking in the Wall. It’s in the New York Journal of Books and reviewed by Helen Gallagher, and I’m really excited about it. Here’s an excerpt: If anyone knows how to help writers achieve their goals, Ms. Abercrombie has it all figured out. In Kicking in the Wall you’ll find…

I drew a line in the sand at Twitter. I was not going to twit or tweet or any of it. I finally caught on to Facebook (and heaven help me I really like it) but Twitter? No way. However the Marketing Whore has another book coming out next month, so….what can I say? Please…

From New World Library's Website: (Their words below, not mine.) KICKING IN THE WALL A Year of Writing Exercises, Prompts, and Quotes to Help You Break Through Your Blocks and Reach Your Writing Goals When Patti Smith was plagued with writer’s block — “scattered and stymied, surrounded by unfinished songs and abandoned poems” — playwright…

This is embarressing to tell you but my refrigerator is almost empty. Every morning I really intend to get to Trader Joes, intend to buy food, but I end up in my office at my computer for the whole day instead. Yesterday in desperation, not to mention hunger, R. went to Vons and bought himself…